1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods and devices for surgically joining separate pieces of tissue to one another, and more particularly to surgically joining a tubular graft of tissue to a separate piece of tissue.
2. Related Art
In performing bypass surgery, it is a known practice to repair clogged or an otherwise damaged segment of tubular tissue, for example an artery, by cultivating a healthy section of artery from a remote location of the body, for example, a thigh, and replacing the damaged section with the cultivated section of artery. In addition, it is also known to bypass a clogged or damaged section of artery by rerouting a healthy section of the artery with the cultivated segment of artery attached thereto, and then attaching an end of the cultivated section of artery to another piece of tissue, for example, a wall of a heart.
While performing the procedures mentioned above, a surgeon must ordinarily spend an exhaustive amount of time completing the procedures, generally ranging between 2 to 6 hours or more. Much of the surgeon's time is spent making certain that the segments of tissue are joined together in a leak-proof anastomosis. Generally, this requires the surgeon to make numerous stitches of suture between the segments of tissue being joined to one another, and in some cases replacing sutures that do not create a leak-proof anastomosis between the pieces of tissue.
Though using sutures to join segments of tissue to one another in open heart surgery, or other forms of surgery, has proven successful, not only does it require an exhaustive amount of time in surgery, there is also a danger of the suture becoming damaged. Damage to a portion of the suture may result in many ways, such as through inadvertent grasping or clamping by a surgical instrument. Ordinarily, a damaged piece of suture has a substantially reduced tensile strength and thus may ultimately fail to maintain the pieces of tissue joined to one another.